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Longmont to Boulder trek sees a few dozen walk the talk on leaving cars behind

Walk2Connect event puts emphasis on 'whole-health outcomes'

By Noah Zucker

For the Camera

Posted:
02/09/2019 04:17:37 PM MST

Updated:
02/09/2019 08:10:33 PM MST

Darcy Kitching, a co-owner of the Walk2Connect cooperative, which organized Saturday's Longmont-to-Boulder Choose Your Own Adventure Ramble, talks to participants in Gunbarrel during a brief stop during the afternoon. (Noah Zucker / For the Camera)

The Longmont Recreation Center was busy Saturday morning. In addition to locals looking to swim, exercise and play games, a perky, warmly-dressed group gathered in the building's lobby with trekking poles and hand warmers.

They were preparing to embark on the Longmont-to-Boulder Choose Your Own Adventure Ramble — a segmented urban hike following the multi-use LoBo trail.

Between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday, the walkers who were organized by Walk2Connect — a Colorado-based cooperative promoting walking and traffic safety — stopped in Niwot, Gunbarrel and Boulder to pick up additional participants before finally ending their 17-mile journey at the Roadhouse Boulder Depot near the corner of Pearl Parkway and 30th Street.

About 40 people RSVP'd for the event, and roughly two dozen started out from Longmont rec center.

"It's perfect," south Boulder's Darcy Kitching, a co-owner of Walk2Connect and the co-op's Boulder program coordinator, said of the weather. "It's cold, but crisp and nice and not snowing," she said through a sunny smile.

"Hiking, the Colorado outdoor hiking," Robin Truesdale, a walker and co-op member from Louisville said,"is a little bit more athletic... Urban walking... is available to everybody." This accessibility, Kitching said, is what the organization is trying to promote.

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"I coordinate events and activities for people to experience and understand the pedestrian infrastructure the city (of Boulder) invests in," Kitching said. She and the cooperative have been contracted by the city to run the Boulder Walks Program, aimed at decreasing car-dependency and promote healthy habits.

"You ask what I have going on — I have a lot of walking going on," Kitching said."Through Walk2Connect I also oversee our community-based, volunteer-led program," Kitching said. "I lead a walk every Thursday morning on a volunteer basis — just for my own joy."

"We have 600 trained (volunteer) walking movement leaders," Ana Lucaci a native Romanian who came to Longmont 11 years ago, and another co-owner of the cooperative, said.

"I started getting involved with walking four years ago when I was hit by a car in a crosswalk," Lucaci said. "I was just finishing my master's in public health, and I just put two and two together... Pedestrian deaths are a public health matter."

Walk2Connect's goal of getting people out of their cars may seem simple enough, but as those involved with the co-op know, that's easier said than done.

"We've built our environment around the car," Lucaci said. In most parts of the country, the physical "environment is not conducive to walking."

Lois Wiersma, a retiree living in Lone Tree, south of Denver, drove an hour to make the walk. She said there's nothing like Walk2Connect where she lives.

"I would walk a lot more to meetings and work venues if I could — if (the infrastructure) was available," Truesdale said.

She believes Boulder has done a good job of promoting internal walkability and public transit options, but that more car-free opportunities need to be available between Boulder and nearby communities.

"On foot," Truesdale said,"you might see a coffee shop you didn't know was there. You might see a neighbor whose passing you on a sidewalk. You might even walk into other neighborhoods you didn't know existed."

"This trail is a wonderful investment, by Boulder County and by the municipalities along the way," in active infrastructure and eco-friendly transit, Kitching said.

In the face of a seatbelted status quo, she says, "regional trail systems like the LoBo trail, are just incredible resources for people to find active alternatives for transportation, for recreation, for enjoyment."

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